Research and Development, Lead (Hackensack)

Elida Beauty is a Global Personal Care Business. We proudly support and nurture our portfolio of iconic brands globally. Our ambition is to remix classic beauty brands for a new generation, making them even bigger beauty hits than they were the first time around, to drive accelerated growth and value creation. Driven by creativity and agility, we unleash the true potential of beloved brands, Re-Founding them using a start-up mentality that always finds a way.

Elida Beauty is a part of the Yellow Wood Partners portfolio of companies, a private equity company that invests exclusively in the consumer industry.

Position Summary

As the R&D Lead for North America, you will be an on the ground R&D business partner to the North America marketing, sales and Supply Chain teams across our portfolio of brands. You will need to lead and coordinate delivery of the renovation, innovation and savings projects, in partnership with the broader business, to bring sustained and exceptional growth to the North American business.

Reporting directly to the Senior Director R&D Program you will be key to driving the growth direction of Elida Beauty, whilst ensuring continued business improvement through a product lens whether improved consumer experience to drive growth, reduced costs to improve margin or faster, risk based, execution to respond to new customer and consumer needs.

You will be working closely with the small, tight knit, entrepreneurial Elida Beauty cross-functional team and as such your opportunity to influence project direction will be both large and critical to success. You will be given the opportunity to rapidly develop new skills and knowledge that will go far beyond that of any typical R&D functional expert.

This will be your opportunity to drive the program for brands that are recognisable household names and with your contribution will return to growth and prominence.

Role Accountabilities

Lead and land projects for Elida Beauty brands as Technical Project Leader.

Ensure that all the mandated product development protocols and requirements are addressed. Ensure that the products meet all the consumer safety & regulatory requirements.

Manage the project plan along with the project team. Ensure proper risk assessment & mitigation plan is in place for assigned projects.

Develop compelling consumer and customer insights and stories through connection with consumers. Support business through direct customer interactions and presentations where required.

Identify and bring to the organization new business opportunities through novel thinking and understanding of consumer trends and needs.

Work closely with other R&D functions to deliver assigned projects as well as broader product development capabilities, such as Savings, Technical Capability building, Consumer / Customer test sample making, etc.

Ensure the product will function as expected and has been demonstrated as such via relevant testing and interpretation of results, and creation of relevant specifications. Oversee preparation of product samples in various stage of product development to support this. Understand environmental footprint and impact.

Lead input of whole product related perspective to x-functional teams ensuring risks are identified, understood and mitigated. Ensure timings and expectations of R&D related activities are ambitious and correctly recognized within project plans.

Requirements

5+ years experience in technical product development roles. Experience acting as Technical Project Leader or R&D Program Manager.

Experience within more than one functional area of R&D is desirable.

Scientific degree in a relevant field, or alternative transferable technical qualification.

Experience within non-woven cotton products is a plus.

Track record of delivering products to market, through working with cross functional teams and external partners. Experience within US and Canada markets is preferable.

Experience of stakeholder and risk management with examples of working agilely and leveraging an 80 : 20 mindset for program delivery.

A creative, logical and analytical mind to generate innovative solutions to technical problems.

Ability to apply business understanding and prioritize the impact of development choices considering factors such as on cost, quality, consumer and environment.

You will need to be enthusiastic and self-motivated with good verbal and written communication skills. Able to communicate to people at all levels of the business, across different functions.

Diversity at Elida Beauty

Diversity at Elida Beauty is about inclusion, embracing differences, creating possibilities, and growing together for better business performance. We embrace diversity in our workforce. This means giving full and fair consideration to all applicants and continuing development of all employees regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy and maternity.

Compensation : The base salary range for this position is $120,000 - 130,000 per year. In addition, this role is eligible for an annual discretionary bonus based on individual and company performance. Actual compensation may vary based on experience, skills, and geographic location.